Bladder fish

PRESCRIBED SOURCE

Bladder Fish, from the Tradescant or Early Ashmolean Museum Collections, 17th Century

Brief Description: Chilomycterus reticulatus, from the tropical Atlantic Ocean.

Provenance: Probably part of the Tradescant Collection. Lent by the Oxford University Museum of Natural History to the Museum of the History of Science (Inventory no. 77644). 
Current location: MHS, Middle Gallery.

Commentary. The bladder fish is precisely the kind of strange and improbable species highly prized by early modern collectors of naturalia. As such, it features prominently in several of the natural history collections of this period: one specimen can be seen in the collection of Ferrante Imperato in 1599 (a crude depiction, top right corner of 1599 imprint, top left in 1672) and two hang from the ceiling of the Museum Calceolarii in 1622 (detail below).  They are also found in other interiors: a Dutch painting from the 1640s, acquired by the Ashmolean in 1999, shows a bladder fish hanging from the ceiling in a distillery.
 
 

 
 
Credits: Howard Hotson (November 2017); 3D Photogrammetry by Jamie Cameron (2017).